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Yesterday, I came out of the tiny phone room where I’d been conducting an interview, into the shared kitchen of the co-working space I’ve been using. The interviewee and I had spent an hour talking mostly about—you guessed it—gender stuff, some of which would likely be considered offensive or distasteful by my fellow co-working members, here in lefty land where I live. At the very end of our talk, I made a comment about some people I’ve interviewed who’ve given me good ideas for titles and subtitles, including the person I was talking to. I described them both as “short Jewish guys.” That’s a neutral description, as far as I see it. Some of the people I’ve interviewed are lanky Catholic fellas—conservatives at that! I don’t think they’d be offended if I described them as such.
I stepped out of the booth, where I’d been having this private call, and a woman was standing there with her arms crossed. She looked not that different from me: middle-aged, possibly of Eastern European descent. She told me that she’d overheard me use the term “short Jewish guy” and that I better be Jewish; otherwise she was going to be offended.